642 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 12
him, Ravana became so powerful that he wanted to challenge the authority
of Lord Rama. Of course, Ravana was never helped by Lord Siva when he
fought with Rama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Lord of
Lord Siva. To Bhaumasura, Lord Siva awarded a benediction which is not
only awkward but also disturbing. Bhaumasura became empowered, by the
grace of Lord Siva, to vanish anyone’s head simply by touching it.
Although this was awarded by Lord Siva, the cunning fellow wanted to
make an experiment of the power by touching the head of Lord Siva. Thus
the lord had to take shelter of Visnu to save himself from trouble, and
the Lord Visnu, by His illusory potency, asked the Bhaumasura to make an
experiment with his own head, and the fellow did it and was finished
himself, and so the world was saved from all sorts of trouble by such a
cunning beggar of the demigods. But the excellent point is that Lord Siva
never denies anyone any sort of gift. He is therefore the most generous,
although sometimes some kind of mistake is made.

Rama means the goddess of fortune. And her shelter is Lord Visnu. Lord
Visnu is the maintainer of all living beings. There are innumerable living
beings, not only on the surface of this planet but also in all other hundreds
of thousands of planets, and all of them are provided with all necessities
of life for the progressive march towards the end of self-realization, but on
the path of sense gratification they are put into difficulty by the agency of
maya, the illusory energy, and so travel the path of a false plan of economic
development. Such economic development is never successful because it is
illusory. These men are always after the mercy of the illusory goddess of
fortune, but they do not know that the goddess of fortune can live only
under the protection of Visnu. Without Visnu, the goddess of fortune is an
illusion. We should therefore seek the protection of Visnu instead of
directly seeking the protection of the goddess of fortune. Only Visnu and
the devotees of Visnu can give protection to all, and because Maharaja
Pariksit was himself protected by Visnu, it was quite possible for him to
give complete protection to all who wanted to live under his rule.

TEXT 24
RARTYTATENAY CY MNT: |
aaa aT sarfatea afi: eI
sarva-sadguna-mahatmye
esa krsnam anuvratah
rantideva ivodaro
yayatir iva dharmikah
